Wayne Lumbasi
An international football star who was feared dead following two devastating earthquakes in Turkey has been reportedly pulled out alive from a collapsed building.
Christian Atsu, who played in the English Premier League (EPL) for Newcastle and represented Ghana in the 2014 World Cup, had been trapped underneath rubble unaccounted for when a 7.8 magnitude tremor rocked several cities on Monday.
The 31-year-old winger has been taken to hospital with an injury to his right foot and also has breathing difficulties. Atsu had one day earlier played a game on Sunday where he came on the field as a substitute and scored the winning goal in the home game against Kasimpasa.
His former English Premier League team had issued a brief message on social media earlier on Tuesday morning prior to being reportedly rescued.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked large parts of Turkey and neighboring Syria in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.
The quake was centred in Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, and was felt as far away as Cairo in Egypt. Hours later, a second 7.5 magnitude jolt, which was possibly an aftershock, struck more than 100 kilometres away from the epicentre of the earthquake and caused more destruction.
